Baumer Foods - They Make Good Food Taste Great

Welcome back. This is going to be a great show. I have a wonderful guest and a brand that we're going to feature on today's Please welcome Pepper Bomber, who is president and CEO of Crystal Hot Sauce, which is a product of Bomber Foods. Welcome to the show.

Appreciate you having me on.

Speaker 1 (11:03.758)
Well, I always love to feature interesting brands, hot sauce, chili sauce, all that stuff for me, the hotter the better. I love those types of products. So I can't wait to dive into this. One thing though that is really important for me is I always like to make sure that we kind of humanize the brand a little bit because I believe that it's just so easy.

for consumers to see products on the market, on the shelf, online, and just kind of think like, it's just some other faceless corporation. I like to humanize this. like to bring it, I really do like to bring it down to the human level and understand and know who we're interviewing. And I want the audience to know, and I want them to know that there's real people behind these companies that we feature, people who care deeply about the product, about the quality, about the consumers and whatnot.

And so one great way of doing that is by understanding what my guests is grateful for. And so with that said, Pepper, if you don't mind, can you share a moment or a memory when someone did something for you that just made you feel grateful because it meant that they believed in you, your vision, or your potential?

Yeah, absolutely. So little fun fact about me. My father's side of the family is crystal hot sauce. My mother's side of the family is a Brennan family in Ballmer, actually in Commander's Palace, Brennan's Palace Cafe, also food really runs through my veins, if you want to say that. But one of the major things that I think that I've been internally grateful for is to my Aunt Ella Brennan.

When I was working for my aunt's at Commander's a couple of years ago, way back when I kind of treated that like my MBA program, so to speak, I was learning the ins and outs of just how a business actually ran. It could have been any business, but fortunately for me, my family's in the restaurant business, so that's the one that we chose. And as I was working with my aunt's in the restaurants, every day at three o'clock, I would go over and sit with Ella and she would toss me the Wall Street Journal and she'd make me read it front to back every day.

Speaker 2 (13:21.214)
And after I was finished reading it, she'd make me pick three articles throughout the journal and we would dissect them. What worked, but didn't work. What would I have done better? What I liked, what I didn't like. And that was really truly just an invaluable experience that I had. And for her to take the time out to really show the investment in me, to kind of give me that confidence that, you got this, that let's figure this out. You're on the right path, which isn't valuable. And so that really helped me out and kind of

paved my way to give me the confidence to go out and do the things that I wanted to do.

Wow, I really love that example. I don't think I've ever heard something like that on the show before and I've interviewed. Very unique. Yeah, very. Founders and business owners. But I really like it because it's a great way to. Instill a lots of different things into into a young person is like not only is it kind of teaching you some lessons, but it's just sort of introducing you to the business world.

having you start thinking about how things work in the business world. And even just those basics just kind of helps you kind of get in the right frame of mind in terms of business. And then of course, you're also soaking in everything you're seeing too. You're seeing how they respond, how they approach meetings, what they do in meetings, how they treat other people, how they treat their employees, how they treat customers, how they market, how they make decisions.

I mean, really, mean, when you have a family business, it's a great education. And I've always often thought, and I know other people have said this too, is that, you know, for a lot of small business owners, one interesting criteria or one tip, I guess, is if you're hiring someone and they come from a family business, then you already know that they...

Speaker 1 (15:19.33)
They probably already know how to work hard and they're used to waking up early and they're, know, like they, you know, depending on the business, they've, they have an education around, around a business. So I love that. So thank you for sharing that. And I'm sure we're to talk a little bit more about all of that as well. And just so the audience knows, so Bomber Foods is the main sort of pairing company. You've got different products and different lines of products around underneath that.

We're going to talk a little bit about Crystal Hot Sauce, but we're probably going to mention and talk about some of the other things. You mentioned some of them right earlier. So we'll make sure to talk a little bit about the company in general as well. But let's start off a little bit about, since this is a family business, let's talk a little bit about its longevity. When was it started? How did they merge? And just kind of a little bit of the company history.

Yeah, absolutely. So my grandfather started this company in 1923. So we just turned 100 years old, I 102 now will be 102, I think next month, be honest with you. But just pure luck, I guess, is the best way to describe it. My grandfather went to his future father-in-law and asked for a loan to purchase a snowball syrup making company.

Down south, call them snowballs. Everywhere else, they call them snow cones. It's just the way the world works. Ironically, and coincidentally, however you want to say it, inside the archives of said company, Snowball Syrup Company, was a recipe for Crystal Louisiana Pure Hot Sauce. And he just decided to flip his business model from snowball syrups to hot sauce. then from there, we just became Balmer Foods. We started producing Crystal Hot Sauce.

Moving forward into that, we started producing preserves with fruit preserves, primarily Louisiana strawberries was kind of our big play, as well as grape and peaches and started kind of making some noise locally and whatnot. But we really hit our stride when my grandfather was able to land the government contract for World War II. so the MREs at the soldiers

Speaker 2 (17:42.648)
took to Germany, they had our tin cans of jellies in there. And that was kind of really what put us on the map financially to kind of go out and get into the retail space on a much wider scale in the country and worldwide. Fun fact, my dad used to always say that once every couple months, somebody would come in, they'd see our sign on the interstate, they'd pull off on the side of the road, make a U-turn, come in.

and come knock on my dad's door, my grandfather's door, and they were a veteran. And they would just say how our tin cans saved them when they were just starving with some biscuits and jam in the heap of the beach or wherever they were. But that's just like always a cool story to hear.

Yeah, I love that. And we'll. You know, we'll talk a little bit about the evolution side of it now and what your what products are being offered now. But in terms of the hot sauce, I'm curious, you know, was it just because was it was Louisiana hot sauce? Was it a cultural thing? Was it was it big? Like, what was the reason for him to flip from the snowballs to the crypto hot sauce?

Did he just think it was a better market or did he see more opportunity in that?

You know, unfortunately, he's not he passed away when I was two and I wasn't able to kind of kind of pick his brain on what made him decide to do that. And I'm even not sure if my father knows exactly what made him tick into that to that thought. But. Before us, I think the only hot sauce out there was just Tabasco. There's I think Louisiana was either right before us or right after us, Louisiana hot sauce meeting. And so we were just kind of.

Speaker 2 (19:32.012)
Louisiana hot sauce is kind of what we were renowned for at the time, I guess. And so I guess he saw a bigger opportunity and a bigger market share than Snowball Syrup Company, which I would assume back then, especially he just realized assumed as a local, local market that couldn't scale and where he had a hot sauce company, I think he saw a much bigger scale on a much wider range of where he can go from.

Well, you know, when you think about it, a snowball company or a snow cone company that, you know, there's there's a lot of competition. There's lots of them. Yeah, and it's seasonal and and there really isn't any IP, right? Intellectual property around that. But with a recipe, you've got a recipe and that's kind of like an intellectual property. And that's something that, you know,

Also seasonal.

Speaker 1 (20:23.992)
that's like more original and it's more unique and individual. Not everyone has this particular recipe or whatnot. So that could have been it too. mean, it's just, there's a lot of potential modes around the business that someone can use. What do you think the longevity of, like if you were to just think of a couple of words, what do you think the reason for the longevity of the company has been?

I mean, 100 years, that's a long time. mean, you guys have not only weathered pandemic and tariffs and whatever, but you've weathered recessions and depressions and things like that.

Yeah, I mean, it goes just goes back to our core slogan, we make good food taste great. We especially going through World War Two and the Great Depression and things like that, especially when when times are tough, people need to use flavor enhancers on food that's not the best quality. And so when times are tough, we do see somewhat of an uptick in our sales just due to that.

that fact, people are buying because they have to, they're scraping by, got to use, they got to buy what they can buy. It's not always the best quality of products that they're usually up to, but they still make it taste good and they still want to taste good. So by using us as the flavor enhancer to do that, it's just kind of one of the things that's kind of kept our longevity going. It's what I think.

Mm hmm. Yeah, I can imagine that. And in terms of the quality, you know, people, people look for people look for products that what's the word I'm looking for, are predictable, like they they fall in love with the product, you know, because it's so it's been around for so many years. So someone who maybe grew up in the 50s or whatever.

Speaker 2 (22:26.199)
Recognizable maybe.

Yes, recognizable and then they they grow up, you know, having it and they they, you know, they used to it and it becomes predictable. the quality and so.

brand loyalty there for sure. That's passed down the generation to generation. No, 100%. We've got the I just I we're in we're in New Orleans here. We were born in New Orleans, literally and figuratively, the product itself as well as my family. So New Orleans is rich in culture and rich in food. We and we've kind of hitched our wagons in New Orleans in that regard, just by kind of tooting our horn, tootin our horn.

and trying to resonate with the food scene and the culture scene of New Orleans. What does the rest of the world think about New Orleans? They think about food, they think about flavor, they think about culture, they think about music. All of that said, going back to the brand loyalty piece and people who grew up with our products, it's just kind of instilled down into their kids and their kids' kids and theirs kids' kids is that you just kind of

keep going with that longevity, I think. And then hopefully along the way we're pulling in some new customers and they continue the trend.

Speaker 1 (23:45.39)
And talk to us about innovation throughout the years. And so I would imagine that you wanna make sure that you always have a foundation or product that is more or less the same because people love it, right? And they wanna keep, if it's great, they wanna keep that original flavor. It's kinda like that Coca-Cola. Remember when they tried the new formula and people didn't like it and they wanted the old formula?

Yeah, yeah,

So you do need those products, but at the same time, you also need to innovate and to build new customers and to build new products that people gravitate towards. And I'm imagining that because you guys have been around so long, that you've always had to innovate every few years. How's that innovation continuing today and what does that look like?

So going back to how I said, was my grandfather kind of hitting his stride with that government contract for World War II? My father's, guess.

how do I say?

Speaker 2 (24:53.614)
Feather in the cap or...

Speaker 2 (24:59.574)
legacy, let's say, was I guess he got us into the private label market. So at the time of that, we were the first players in the industry to offer a one stop shop option for retailers and to do a private label option. not only do we do hot sauce, we do steak sauce, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, teriyaki sauce, wing sauce, liquid smoke.

And so retailers that you see the big box stores around the country can come to us and we can offer all of those products under one roof where instead of having to go to different vendors and whatnot. So that was kind of the major thing that my father's legacy hit upon. Fast forward to 2005 and Hurricane Katrina came to New Orleans and wiped us out. Our manufacturing facility then was in mid city, a part of New Orleans that was decimated by flooding. We had about

six to eight feet of water in our facility at that time. Most of our equipment was underwater. Some of it was on the second floor. So we were able to salvage that, but we were able to rebuild. But during that time, we were down for damn near two and a half years. We didn't run our own products in our own new facility until that into January of 2007. So in that time of being down, was a lot of up-customer, or excuse me, competitor that came into the

arena, so to speak, in the private label arena and kind of took a little bit of the market share. But we, guess, just the way that we have done business in the past and the reputation that we were able to build over that time, when we were when we were back, majority of those customers came back, which was very fortunate because that I mean, Katrina was was hard. Fast forwarding into kind of where

I am and how we're innovating for that. When that time came, we were probably about 50-50 branded the private label as a company. Not having to rely so much on the private label sector of that. When I came into the fold, I started really kind of marketing and pushing our brand to try and raise above that. So right now I'd probably say we're at 60-40 brand to private label.

Speaker 2 (27:23.594)
And then I would like to continue that trend to maybe do 70, 30. Never want to get rid of private label. One, because it helps my line run and keeps my margin better for my branded products. But also just the more you turn and burn, the more is an easy, you're more efficient you are. But also consumers go to the store. There is a higher probability of them picking two things that I've made rather than just one thing. So you never want to kind of let that go.

So we still want to continue that trend. And other things that we've kind of really been kind of going forward on is focusing on our industrial business, where we're like an added ingredient to somewhere. So you go to McDonald's and you see the Buffalo sauce at McDonald's or the Subway hot sauce. We may be the primary base for that sauce being made somewhere at a major facility like Conagra or Ventura or something like that.

And that's kind of where I'm kind of taking the next stride. I think in our, in our business, we've always kind of done industrial quote unquote, as more of a one-off people would contact us. Hey, do you do that? Yeah, sure. We can handle that for you, but I've really invested heavily inside that space. It was equipment with personnel trying to really, that was the low hanging fruit that I saw that we can kind of really capture with something. I we already do it. It just to having people, right. People in the seat.

and with the right equipment to go out and go and get bigger business. And that just allows me to bring in more cash to not one, reinvest into the company on the equipment side, but also to reinvest into the marketing of the brand. Again, we're 102 years old. We wouldn't be around for 102 years old if people didn't like the product, but to get that brand awareness out there and to get that name out there is just only going to help build the brand. And so from that regard, that's kind of where I see my

vision of the company is going. We do have some things under on the forefront of new products that we're launching. But at the end of the day, there's only two, really two ways to kind of grow in my industry. You can go out by either acquiring sales by either purchasing other companies that you feel fit with your brand profile, or coming out with new product development, which also is very capital requires capital. Yeah. So

Speaker 1 (29:40.142)
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 (29:47.96)
We do have some stuff on the new product side coming out. don't know when the fear of those will be released. I don't want to really talk about that that much, but the low hanging fruit again was that industrial piece that I saw that we already did it. We just need to put the right people in the seats, get some new equipment in here and kind of hit that button and really bring it all in.

Yeah, well, I think it makes a lot of sense. And I would imagine also being able to have the equipment and control a lot of that. The manufacturing part of it is, although for a lot of brands who started today, it could be capital intensive in the beginning, long run, if you can run it efficiently. I think it helps out in so many different ways. I mean, it helps you innovate faster, potentially. helps you.

try new things, it helps you improve your margins, which in the food business could be really small margins at times. I think it just helps in so many different ways. And it's a big investment. I've interviewed a couple of companies, a cereal company just recently, real cereal that they have decided to put that investment up front. it took like two or three years before they became somewhat profitable, but now it's all taken in.

so the other side of it too, is as you mentioned, making it more, you know, building up the brand awareness to new customers and, and existing customers. The, you know, there's a lot of things have changed over a hundred years, right? Even in the last 10 years, right? Yeah. I mean, I am, you know, I feel I'm still a young man, but at the same time though, I remember when, you know, faxes were around and.

in the last six.

Speaker 1 (31:35.191)
you know, dial, you know, dial, dial, dial phone.

Dial up internet.

I also remember Direct Mail, which is still out there, but I mean, it was a bigger part of the advertising and the marketing strategy. Yeah. Magazines, things like that. So, you know, things change. And that was only like 10, 20 years ago. And things have changed now. How are you guys keeping up to date on, you know, and maybe innovating in those areas like social media, brand awareness, things like that?

Yeah, well, guess the big prime example, this technology is everything. mean, the technology world has revolutionized everything at a much faster pace. Prime example of what you're saying, you went from the circular dial telephones to the button dial, button dial telephones. Then we went to the computer. Then we went to email. And then with social media, hit the scene. It was like the Industrial Revolution all over again. People were, I mean, everybody's got a computer in their phone now.

So everybody has instant information all the time. They can look up anything. They're getting bombarded with ads left and right. So if you're not doing anything on social media, you're definitely being left in the dust.

Speaker 2 (32:54.424)
Fast forward to today, AI is the new thing. We're still trying to figure out how to incorporate that into our business, but we're trying and we're looking to see how it's working. And I sincerely believe if you're not trying, you will be left in the dust because your competitors and everybody else is definitely trying to figure out how AI is going to benefit them in the long run. It's here, it's technology, you got to adapt and continue to go.

Yeah, I mean, I agree. I actually had a brand that this is a couple of years ago now, but they were one of their investors was was Jeff Bezos. And they're actually out of out of Brazil, I think, or one of the South American countries. And they're using AI. They're a company called, if I remember correctly, NotCo, and they're using AI to to combine

different plants and different ingredients to create new products. So they were primarily kind of like alternative milks and alternative meats and things like that. But they were like, they were using AI to just like find ingredients that we may, you know, may have taken us years to combine or look at and so forth. And they created this database and then the database, the AI just basically works on this database and looks at different ways to combine different ingredients and so forth.

which was really interesting. They were using combinations of plans that I had never heard of before, right? Which was really interesting. But there's also different ways to use AI, of course. But I just feel like from a longevity standpoint, I don't know. I often wonder whether we will continue to see companies that are 100 years old or more.

because the technology is moving so fast. mean, it's just like, it's just, does that ever keep you up at night? Just thinking like, wow, it's like, are, things are moving so fast. Like, can we keep up? Because even on the infrastructure side, you know, or not infrastructure, but like the manufacturing, you know, there's robotics, there's all this thing coming up. mean, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, I don't know. It just, it could be overwhelming at times, I think.

Speaker 2 (35:17.218)
Definitely, definitely for sure. mean, Mike, answer your first question, do I keep me up at night? Yes, because I have two, I have the next generation. I have two daughters and I hope come into the business when they become of age. But that's constantly keeping me up at night. How do we have the competitive edge against our competitors? Everybody's investing in the robots and automation. when automation, the big A word was the big thing kind of going out.

that you couldn't say, but now it's just kind of come to the forefront. Now it's just it's part of our business now. You got it. It's adapt or die, essentially.

Yeah, it's really interesting how you have you in particular have this business that has this rich history that's been around and it's survived through countless, you know, upheavals throughout, you know, the economy and the world and so forth. And it's this really interesting sort of contrast for the economy in between this the new technology. And and again, I think I always wonder, like, you know,

Will we still have companies that are like yours with things that change so quickly? Because things just aren't the same the way they were anymore. I mean, look at the economy and everything else. Things have changed. So, yeah, for me, that's really interesting. What what lessons have you learned about, you know, business, both from your family, like from, you know, that you've learned from your aunt and your and your

your parents and whatnot. And then what lessons have you learned in your time in running the company?

Speaker 2 (37:02.446)
Yeah, I call it the baptism by fire. I officially became president and CEO and bought the company from my father in 2019. a year later, COVID comes in March and we're kind of like, oh, OK, what's going on here? The first year of COVID was a blessing. If you own the grocery store or you supply the grocery store.

you were thriving because nobody was home and everybody was home. Nobody was going to work. Everybody was cooking. So everybody was buying our products left and right. We couldn't keep it up fast enough, but we still had the supply chain wasn't bogged down yet. Fast forward a year, 2021. That's when the supply chain just went to kaput. That was a serious soul searching, especially my dad even says

I would have never thought anything would be worse than Katrina. And he said this trucked Katrina by a tenfold. I'll be perfectly blunt with you between 2021 and the beginning of Q4, beginning of Q1 of 24. I probably shorted between. 12 and a half to 13 million in sales just from not being able to have that glass bottle, not being able to have that label at Fitment, you name it, just.

Hmm.

Speaker 2 (38:24.994)
didn't have it. The sales were there. So that's what kind of kept me getting up in the day and putting my head down and kept going because people want our product. It's not their fault that we can't get it to them. It's just the way of the world. It's out of our control. It sucks. We took it on the chin for those years. But the fact that people were still ordering and buying and trying to get our product really gave me the fire to just keep pushing.

Because there were times during those years where I seriously questioned, this what I want to do for the rest of my life? It was emotionally draining. It was bad. It was real bad. But again, just having that in the back of my mind that people want our products, people want our products, that just kept driving me and driving me to put my head down and just write it out, write it out, write it out. So I guess to answer your question, where are some lessons that I've learned?

People love us. People like our products. We have a good product. Just you need to just continue to go through and push and you can't, there's more than one ways the skin of cat, as they say, you can go over the wall, around the wall, through the wall. There's, you just got to think outside the box a lot. And that was one of the main things that I've learned on the job is that there's

many different ways to come to a conclusion than just one answer, if that makes sense. So adapt is kind of, guess, one of the major things that I've learned in the short tenure that I've had so far.

Mm hmm. I spoke to someone the other day and and they had gone. They had. They had 2008 was really was a really difficult time for them. The recession that hit and then and then covid of course was really difficult for them. Yeah, and and their business is not as old as yours, but it's been around a little bit and so.

Speaker 1 (40:30.082)
You know, they feel at this point, like I asked them about the tariffs, like, you know, how was the tariffs? And, and they were saying, you know, at this point, like nothing phases them, you know, because they've gone through so much. Yeah. are you at that point yet? I mean, have you like, for instance, are the tariffs doing anything to your business at this point? So.

We've gone through it so much,

Speaker 2 (40:51.266)
We fortunately, knock on wood here, it hasn't affected us yet. We did get letters from our vendors in the beginning saying, if you're prepared, the tariffs are coming. Then about a couple of weeks ago, we got another letter from the same vendors saying that we're holding off, we're at navigating it. So I'm hoping that continues. But to your point, we've been through, we've gone through it, we'll figure it out. Again, it's the adapting piece.

The one caveat, unfortunately, for our industry is that we don't have the luxury of just passing that on to the consumer right then and there. Retailers take anywhere from 90 days or more before you can get a price increase in. And then who knows, by that time, tariffs could be rescinded. So it's just one of the things that you kind of take on the chin. And we don't want to pass this on to our customers. That's just a burden on them as well. And we understand what's going on.

in the grocery industry in which we're going to advise while it's now. So that's not what we're trying to say. But at the end of the day, it's, I'm thankful that we don't have to make that decision right now, but at the end of the, but we will figure it out if we have to.

Yeah, yeah, that's the the hardest part. I think right now is just the uncertainty. It's hard to plan when there's a lot of uncertainty around correct. And so all right, well, then thank you for sharing all that. Let's let's talk on a higher note now on the because, you know, it's been a tough environment. I think but I but here's the thing, too, is that I often feel the reason why I like to talk about challenges as well as well as the good the good things is that I really want people to listeners.

who might have tried your sauce and might be consumers of your sauce right now, I really want them to know that bringing the product to market is a difficult endeavor. And in just the normal circumstances, it could be difficult. But when we've had like the pandemic and now the tariffs, and if you've been around a little bit longer, you've had some recessions that you've gone through, this is a hard business. And I often think that it's good for consumers to know that

Speaker 1 (42:57.378)
there is a lot of difficulty involved. But there's people like you who adapt, who keep going, who keep trying and are committed to creating, continuing to create a great product. And I really feel like if you show that you care a little, that you care about what you're doing, it gives the consumers permission to care also about what they're doing and build trust, you know? And if they've grown up eating the crystal hot sauce,

I think it just endears them even further to the brand. So that's my idea around all that. So let's talk about the products. So let's start with the main one that we've been talking about a little bit and then we can talk about some of the other stuff that you guys have. The Crystal Hot Sauce. I just wanted to say too, what you said earlier about, was it flavor enhancers or something like that? So I've actually gone, I've actually eaten

eat less meat. used to eat fish and stuff, but I eat less meat and that transition would not have been as good as it had been if it wasn't for these flavor enhancers. So like I grew up eating hot sauce. I love hot sauce. I've tried a million different types of hot sauce. I pretty much at this point like to have hot sauce and pretty much everything I eat. My mother even has, you she's, she's already, you know, passed away, but

She would tell me that when she was, when I was a kid, she did this to all of us, all my brothers and sisters, that she would chop up peppers, like small amount of peppers and put it into our food all the time, just to get us used to it like that. Cause you know, she's just wanted us to get used to it. That's how much, you know, hot sauce and hot foods have been in my past.

So I know a lot of people are like that. They love this stuff and it does make food good. Like even like the vegetables and stuff like that. It makes it really taste much better. You know, if you're eating more vegetables and not used to eating vegetables, the hot sauce and all this stuff really makes a big difference. So with that said, tell us about the Crystal Hot Sauce.

Speaker 2 (45:08.622)
So we are all about flavor over heat. That's kind of our motto. I know you mentioned you said the hotter the better. We have extra hot for you and we have some other end of crystal with garlic that's got a little more cake for the consumer like you. But what we're trying to do and what we are is we are trying to enhance the chef's creation that they're doing, not distort the flavors. So a lot of people just kind of put hot sauce on there and you'll taste.

either just a hot vinegar or very hot salt and whatnot. And that's all you taste. Prime example, you're cooking your fish, you probably want to taste that fish and kind of not just taste a bunch of spice. While using us, we're an added ingredient, where instead of just a supplement, if that makes sense. And we've really kind of hit our niche with that. And then that's why we call ourselves the chef's best kept secret, especially in New Orleans, where one of the best

We're proud to say that we're number one in the state in scans. The majority of the kitchens in New Orleans have us in their kitchens and they cook with us and we're an added ingredient. We're not just a one-off. So we take pride in that. And so when we move forward and trying to push our brand out there and what's kind of our niche quote unquote, again, it all comes down to flavor. As I told you in the beginning, we make good food, tastes great.

I love that. And I love that other line of chefs best kept secret. So what are the products that you have out there?

Oh, hot sauce, obviously number one, we have a crystal with garlic with just a little bit thicker, a little bit hotter, but it has a garlic flavored component to it. We have our extra hot hot sauce, which is probably on the same skull unit or same heat level as Tabasco. Then you jump down into wing sauce where we have original and extra hot. We have a soy sauce. We have a Worcestershire sauce. We have a teriyaki sauce. And we also have a

Speaker 2 (47:12.084)
a product, liquid smoke product that we use and we sell to food service and then also retail. There's all sorts of meat condiments. At a barbecue, if you need a barbecue, we can help you out.

Wow.

Speaker 1 (47:26.018)
so everyone out there, you can go to crystal hot sauce.com. So crystal hot sauce.com three words, crystal hot sauce.com is the website. And I have to tell you Pepper that, it is, is quite a site. Like I've never seen one like this. It's actually very fun. It's enjoyable.

It's very colorful. It's animated. It's fun. It makes you smile. I love it. Kudos to whoever designed your site because it's like an adventure just watching it. And it really showcases your food and just the vibe of the brand. So it's pretty cool. And obviously, it highlights NOLA and Louisiana very prominently on there.

And so someone who is listening to this, likes what you said, loves the idea that you guys have been working so hard and keeping the company going and going through these trials and tribulations and still creating this amazing product. Is there any place that you would want them to...

to start with the brand? there any best sellers or anything that you would want them, like if they were gonna try one product or go in there, what would you recommend?

definitely go after so the main three that I always tell people who are new to our new to our products is original crystal hot sauce, our Worcestershire sauce and our soy sauce. Those are the three for anybody who just kind of wants to get a glimpse of what kind of flavor quality and top quality ingredients that we use. Those three best encompass that. And so once you if you if you try those three, I will guarantee that you will love every single one of our other products as well.

Speaker 1 (49:26.792)
okay. Great. And I'm on the website, which is crystal hot sauce dot com. There's a couple of buttons there. There's recipes, there's merchandise. There's obviously the shopping products and in there. And I have to say, so I still do eat some meat, like, you know, like I have fish and whatnot, but I typically have a lot of vegetables and I do incorporate more tofu and things like that. But I'll be honest with you, like

You know, I have to be very creative when I eat tofu. So like, I'm looking at your marinade right now and I'm like, okay, here's something I can try. Like I can marinate the tofu. Cause what I've actually started doing is marinate.

Or stir fry or stir fry with the soy. Yeah.

Yeah, the soy sauce or I use a marinade on the tofu and then I bake it, you know, in the oven. So so I'm looking at your marinade, your like, for instance, the quick fajita marinade, the liquid smoke, all that sounds amazing. And of course, you have the teriyaki is off. I love the teriyaki and the soy sauce. Yeah, it sounds amazing. And then of course you have merch, which is pretty cool,

Wow. Okay.

Speaker 1 (50:37.496)
This is fantastic. So where can people buy? is this someplace, can people buy on the website, Amazon, the marketplaces and our retailers?

yeah, so obviously website for sure, Amazon also. We're in pretty much every major retailer that's out there. I'm happy to announce that about two, three weeks ago, we just got in the nationwide into Kroger. We had some divisions, to be in to get that call to go in the nationwide in Kroger, one of the biggest retailers in the country, was a huge hit to us. So we're very excited about that. That probably will become real until about September when you start seeing it on the shelves everywhere.

But Walmart, Publix, Kroger, Harris Teeter, Wegmans, Food Lion, pretty much every major grocery store chain, they got us in it.

for sure. And nationwide on Crogers.

and Kroger nationwide and Kroger nation pretty much nationwide and Walmart, all of Publix, all of Wegmans, all Food Lion, Giant Eagle, Giant. Our major, excuse me. Our major focus really is you draw a circle around the SEC college colleges. That's our primary market.

Speaker 2 (52:06.572)
We're huge in Baltimore, huge in Philly, number one in Miami, number one in NorCal. Where we lack is kind of Oklahoma, Iowa area, but we're trying to grow that as best we can.

Well, we look forward to that. And so I want to be respectful of your time. You've got you're running a business and I really enjoy this conversation. I love talking to companies like yours because you guys like have endured so much. You guys have this amazing product that continues to be trusted with, you know, with individuals and restaurants and businesses and so forth. And I was just I love to just get the lessons learned and hear about the history of it all.

I probably should ask you one last question about your name, given that you're a Crystal Hot Sauce. How did that come about? that your real name?

fitting isn't that?

Speaker 2 (53:07.23)
My actual real name is Alvin Adam, quotes Pepper Balmer. My grandfather was Alvin. My dad's junior. I'm the third. My grandmother would be damned if she was going to have three Alvins running around. So Pepper was I was named since the womb and it just sort of stuck. And I've never been called anything but Pepper since I've been alive. So I think people call me Alvin. I don't even turn around.

and I think they're talking to my dad or somebody. But it's very fitting. I'm a walking billboard, as they say, for our company, which I'm very much pride in. And I enjoy it. Being in a family on both sides in the food industry has been amazing and I've been very blessed. It's just been awesome.

Yeah, no, I love that. I love the name and I thought maybe since your family has been rooted in the restaurant and food business for a long time that maybe that's that was your God given name rather your baptism or whatever. Yeah, yeah. But this has been great, man. Thank you so much for making time with us. I'm going to have I'm going to put the link to the website. Crystal hot hot sauce dot com is the website.

That leads you to the Bomber Foods website and you'll see all the other products on there as well. But thank you Pepper for making time for us.

Ramon, I really appreciate the time and I appreciate you reaching out for me to join. It's been a pleasure.

Speaker 1 (54:41.89)
Yeah, no, I love it. And everyone out there, we have just had Pepper Bomber, who is president and CEO of Crystal Hot Sauce. That is a product of Bomber Foods. The website, crystalhotsauce.com, is going to take you to the main site. So you'll be able to see the Crystal Hot Sauce as well as their soy sauce and their marinades and everything else. And you can take a look at that. It's actually just a really beautiful website. Like, it's fun. And I think it does a fantastic job of highlighting Louisiana.

Beyond that, everyone, stay safe, stay sane, stay healthy. and one last thing, we're gonna make sure to have all those links on our podcast description, which you can find at Apple, Spotify, pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts, simply type in the story of a brand show and you should be able to find it. Beyond that, again, like I said, stay safe, stay sane, stay healthy. And one last thing, we've all been going through a lot of stuff in the last few years, 10 years or so with the pandemic.

Now with the tariffs and then of course, the geopolitical wars and politics and everything else, let's just do ourselves a favor and let's just remember that everyone is going through something and let's just be a little kinder to each other. And I know if we can do that, we can make this human experience a better one. Beyond that, thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to another episode of the story of a brand. And we're out.